Essential Strategies for Oracle Forms 11 Modernization and Performance Management

The Oracle Forms and Reports
Modernization Experts

Essential Strategies to Oracle Forms 11
Modernization and Performance Management

November 15, 2012
Oren Elias Correlsense
Martin Disterheft, PITSS America LLC

Agenda

• Risks of Oracle Forms modernization
• Keys to a successful migration
• Performance management of Oracle Forms
• Summary/QA

2 Copyright 2012 PITSS America LLC www.pitss.com

Housekeeping

• Presentation will last 45 minutes
• Submit questions via the chat window
• Slides will be made available tomorrow


Risks of Oracle Forms Modernization


Oracle Forms Support Timeline

Oracle is still supporting and developing Oracle Forms

Source : http://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/lifetime-support-middleware-069163.pdf

De-Support Risks

How much longer will your application continue to run?

 Application Software

 Operating Software

 Hardware

“IT organizations assume considerable risk with unsupported deployments of Oracle
Forms solutions, and risks grows as technology ages.”
Mark Driver – Gartner - 2011


New Rollouts Are Challenging

• Oracle Forms complex architecture
• Need strategic approach to modernization
• How do you monitor performance post deployment?

Desktop IAS or WLS

Apache Oracle
Server DB
or OHS
Internet IAS or WLS

Apache Oracle
Server DB
or OHS

Strategies for a Successful Migration


Continued Support Into The Future

Oracle Statement of Direction – Key Statements on Support:
• Oracle Forms Support:
 No plans to discontinue Forms
 Future releases of Forms will be aimed at smooth version-to-version upgrades
and Fusion Middleware Integration

• Oracle Reports Support:
 Reports will continue to be supported into release 12c but BI Publisher is the
Statement of Direction for Reporting
 Recommended that customers begin planning a migration to BI Publisher

• Oracle Designer Support:
 Reports Oracle Designer was not released as a component of Oracle Fusion
Middleware 11g, nor is it planned for Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c
 Oracle continues to offer sustaining level Support for Oracle Designer 10g

- Oracle, March 2012
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/issue-archive/2010/toolssod-3-129969.pdf


Oracle’s Recommendation to Customers

Protect, Extend and Evolve
“Oracle has outlined a strategy which allows customers to protect the considerable
investment they have in traditional technologies while allowing new tools and
technologies to be adopted for evolving or new development initiatives.”*

Unsupported
Protect Supported
Upgrade Oracle Extend
Future Architecture
Forms/ Reports 2.3,
3.0, 4.5, 5.0, 6.0, 6i, 9i, Oracle Forms/ Reports 11g
10g Start Leveraging WebLogic Evolve
Technologies
*- Oracle, March 2012 Oracle ADF, APEX, … SOA
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/issue- Continue Leveraging WebLogic
archive/2010/toolssod-3-129969.pdf

Common Performance Issues with Oracle Forms

• Most performance issues arise from change from Client-Server
to Web-Architecture
 Forms-Build-Ins cause unexpected network-traffic
(Synchronize, repeating timers,…)
 Change from C to Java runtime processes  Java processes certain
operations slower than the C programs in 6i (e.g. Block with many
records) – Code properties need to be adjusted

• Browser Performance
 Loading of large images, tabbed canvases with many objects,…

• DB related issues due to DB upgrade
(changed index processing)
• Missing Patches: resolves bugs with DB-locking, Alert issues
(Forms Screen freezes),...


Modernization Alternatives/Cost comparison

Manual re-write in e.g. .NET , Java …

Cost Migration to ADF, APEX, …
with tool based preparation

1:1 Migration-Tools
without Forms Preparation

Automated Upgrade to 11g

Time
Conversion project completion
Code Maintenance after conversion
Recommended Upgrade/Migration Approach

“…we believe that modernization and migration efforts that embrace differences, and re-
architect and build to the "sweet spots" of their target technology are most successful …”
– Gartner 2011

What makes a successful Migration ? (1/2)

Staged Migration – via the Hybrid Approach

“A staged (that is, phased) migration
effort enables Oracle Forms applications ADF, SOA,…
to be migrated over time. This lengthens
the period during which Oracle Forms
remains an architectural element, Forms t

but reduces the overall migration risk
Time
during that time period.”
Gartner - 2011

“Migrate at your own pace based on the available skills and project priorities.”

*Source: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/issue-archive/2010/toolssod-3-129969.pdf (March 2012)

What makes a successful Migration ? (2/2)

Migration = Software Re-Engineering / Re-Architecting

Grant Ronald, Oracle
Senior Group Product Manager, Oracle Application Development Tools
Writing in the ODTUG Journal

“Any attempt to [re-write] a Forms application
to [ADF, Apex …] without taking into
consideration the difference in architecture is
in effect an effort at re-implementing the 20-
year-old Forms runtime”
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-
tools/forms/documentation/formsmigration-133693.pdf


PITSS Modernization Process
Forms 11g
Oracle Forms Upgrade Ready for SOA
Documentations
Null Objects
Specifications Redundant Objects
DA-Layer
Not used Objects
Dependencies Redundant Source
BL-Layer
Not Triggered
Comparisons
DBLA
Not Tech. Relevant
Forms 2, 3, … Java/ADF
WEBService

Business-Logic
Analysis Dead Code Redundancy
Protection

APEX
Quality Assurance
Documentation
Iteration
Co-Existence of Technologies/ Partial Projects


Complexity – Analysis

 Complexity Analysis – Enabling a successful Migration


Unused Object Removal

On average, 30% of Forms objects are unused or redundant
Who dares to touch a running system?
Example: 45% less lines of code in a real-life, 600-FMB Designer application

 delete unused objects
 group similar code in libraries
 move data management to DB


PITSS.CON: Life Cycle Management for Oracle Forms

Maintain/Develop
Maintenance - DB Handling, Module Handling, Module
Compiling, and Form Consistency checking.
Development - Search, Replace, View, and Edit all PL/SQL
Code objects.
Visual Design - Search, Replace, View, and Edit Forms
Objects Properties (Fonts, Sizes, Overlapping, etc).
Application Analysis - See what is affected when a Form or
DB Object is changed.
Multi-Language - Make any form display in multiple language
without creating multiple forms.
Source Control - Archive forms as you make changes.

Modernize
Migration APEX - Guided automated transfer of forms to
APEX.
Migration ADF - Guided automated transfer of forms to ADF.
Migration - Upgrade any legacy version of Oracle
Forms/Reports to 10g or 11g.

Reengineer
Application Engineering - Identifies/removes obsolete code.
Extracts Data Access Layer (DAL) and Business Logic (BL)
from your Forms and place in the DB (SOA Enables).
Source Code Analytics – Source Code Statistics

Live Demo

Live Demo


PITSS Benefit - Return on Invest

Utilizing PITSS.CON Software
 Reduces Project duration
 Free up Project Budget
 Ensures a higher Quality compared to traditional (manual) approaches
Production
Definition Planning Implementation
Preparation

Traditional / Manual
Re-Development
Re-write
without .NET
Oracle Fusion Java
Technology (PITSS)

Modernization ADF
(PITSS)
with Oracle
Fusion
Technology Forms
11g
(PITSS)

Savings by using PITSS.CON compared to manual approach t


PITSS Product & Service Offerings

Pre 10g Upgrade to 11g: 10g Upgrade to 11g:
- FREE Proof of Concept Workshop - Fixed Price Conversion Offer
 3-5 Days PITSS.CON workshop  3-5 Days onsite or remote
 Upgrade entire application to 11g  Upgrade entire application to 11g
 PITSS.CON modules pilot  Decision with confidence
 Decision with confidence

Migration to ADF
- Pilot Project or Forms to ADF-Days
 Analysis Report
 Migrate 1-2 Forms modules
 Be confronted with all future project challenges
 Make accurate estimations
 Decision based on FACTS


Performance Management of Oracle Forms


If it Ain’t Broke Why Fix It?

• “It was better with the old system”
• Cost of failure high
 Roll back applications
 Retesting
 Migrate data back

The combination of older code, lack of documentation,
and application size and complexity all contribute to
very high barriers to migration for many Oracle Forms
deployments… many Oracle Forms developers have
avoided upgrading to newer versions of the toolset,
never mind the larger challenge of migrating from
Oracle Forms altogether.
-Gartner 2010


The End-to-End Challenge with Oracle Forms

No Issues Not in my !?
“It’s with single code!
It’s
SLOW!!”
sign on

SLOW!!

It’s not the
network
(again)
“It’s Database is
fine
SLOW!!”
webservers
up and Webservices
??
customers runnin’ data center operations


Proactive Management- Know Before the Users

Topology map isolates
the infrastructure
components involved. application team
SLA Analysis Ticket is escalated to drills down into
points to the right team. Forms
bottleneck area. Identifies faulty
method

App team provides
shows the workaround / fix.
locations that are Change impact analysis
proves the Forms issue
affected and user
has been resolved
in Oracle apps

- detects
degradation in
Ticket closed
SLA
- Opens ticket


Production Optimization

• Monitor Forms apps end-to-end
• Manage user experience
• Understand how components interact


Track All Requests Through All Hops

• Track all user requests through all components (not just Java and
.Net)
• Track and meter single end user across entire stack
• Apache, OC4J, Forms Runtime and Oracle Database

Applet
Apache
Forms
OC4J
Runtime
Specific SQLs


Manage User Experience with Meaningful Transaction Names


Understand How Components Interact

• Auto-detected
• Real-time
• Without manual modeling


SharePath for Oracle Forms/EBS

• Goes beyond Java/.Net with Forms runtime coverage
 Broadest coverage: rich clients, Forms applet, C++, ESBs …
 Supports the most complex, heterogeneous architectures
• Dashboards for operations, support, and engineering
• No application code changes necessary
• Auto-detects transaction paths


Summary

• Forms environment has many performance challenges
• Optimize Oracle Forms in production
 For users
 On Backend
 Monitor Forms end-to-end
• SharePath is the only APM offering
for Forms based/EBS


Questions?

PITSS - USA Correlsense:
Sales contact: Jason Marra www.correlsense.com/demo
jmarra@pitss.com Email: info@correlsense.com
www.pitss.com/us
Email: info@pitssamerica.com
Phone: 248.740.0935 #11


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